Drawing from the story of Antigone, a new site-specific art installation by Maria Papadimitriou.

Artist’s Statement

A couple of years ago, while returning from a trip to Volos with my friend and colleague at the University of Thessaly, Yorgos Tzirtzilakis, we took a detour to Leivadia to meet our friend, the clarinetist Yorgos Mangas. At some point, traveling toward Thebes, Yorgos looked distractedly out the window and said: “We are going through a legendary landscape, where bloodthirsty battles took place, a set inhabited by historical symbols.”
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The film (35m), combines visually poetic images and interviews with its subject, 25-year-old Rakeem Edwards.

Artist’s Statement

“I have been a stranger here in my own land: All my life,” says Antigone to the chorus.

That is very much the case of Rakeem Edwards, a 25-year-old black man born in Georgia and raised in Alaska. He lived in group and foster homes before moving to Portland at the age of 21 to pursue an acting career. Read more

Repoussoir for a New Perspective

October 13–January 2017 | 8 AM - 10 PM daily

Location: ATRIUM

By Alexandra Kehayoglou

Repoussoir for a new perspective, is a hand-woven tapestry measuring approximately 23 x 8’, displayed in the Olympic Tower Atrium and on view daily from 8 am to 10 pm. Executed in earth tones using tufted wool—discarded thread from her family’s carpet factory in Buenos Aires—the two-piece sculptural form represents the cave formations and volcanic activity that produces intricate outcroppings and patterns in the landscape on the Greek island of Milos. Read more

The Antigone Now Project

Friday, October 14 | 1 - 5 PM

Location: GALLERY

The Onassis Cultural Center New York partnered with local schools (Brooklyn Latin School, Cultural Academy for the Arts and Sciences, and Hour Children) and the Epic Theatre Ensemble to create Antigone Now residencies, in which students studied the text of Antigone over the course of ten workshops and prepared a creative response to it. On Friday, October 14, they will come together at the Onassis Cultural Center New York to watch a performance of the play by Epic and present their creative efforts to their peers.

Participating students are preselected for this program.

Be Drummers!

Friday, October 14 | 7:30 - 9 PM

Location: ATRIUM

By Banda Magda

Led by Greek-born composer and vocalist Magda Giannikou, this high-powered concert draws upon a variety of musical traditions from Brazil, Argentina, and Colombia to France, Greece, Mali, and Zimbabwe. Apart from the band’s classic global romps and ballads, it will also present a sneak peek of their upcoming album, Tigre, a compilation of songs and stories about sources of courage and fearlessness.

With one of the film’s directors, Bridgette Auger, and producer Hal Scardino, as well as Daniel Masterson and Fadia Afashe.

A documentary film directed by Bridgette Auger and Itab Azzam, shot over three months in 2014, We Are Not Princesses centers on Antigone of Syria, an eight-week drama workshop in Lebanon with 35 Syrian women from the Sabra, Shatila, and Bourj el-Barajneh refugee camps.
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Georgia Sagri builds vocal and rhythmic soundscapes that are recorded and repeated while she synchronizes her movements with the recorded sounds. The seven-minute Coda of Antigone Model is performed in a loop for half an hour and each repetition, though similar, creates difference. Read more

By Lena Kitsopoulou
Performers: Lena Kitsopoulou, Sofia Kokkali, Themis Panou, and Anastasios Samaras
Play performed IN GREEK with supertitles
Recommended for mature audiences

Award-winning, groundbreaking playwright and actor Lena Kitsopoulou stars in and directs a new play inspired by the story of Antigone and specially commissioned for the Antigone Now festival. Antigone – Lonely Planet also stars Sofia Kokkali (Little England) and Themis Panou (Miss Violence).

In tandem with the #iSTANDfor global digital campaign, the I Stand For Stage is a forum for lively discussions on pressing social concerns of the day.

I Stand for Gender Equality / Fighting for Fundamentals

Saturday, October 15 | 1 PM

Location: ATRIUM

With Masih Alinejad and Jaha Dukureh, in conversation with Richard Lui

While women in America are fighting for equal pay, women in countries all around the world are still fighting for such basic human rights as education for girls, coming out from under the veil of the hijab, or protection from the practice of female genital mutilation. Read more

I Stand for the Environment / Our Fragile Ecosystem

Saturday, October 15 | 2 PM

Location: ATRIUM

With Céline Cousteau, Erin Schrode, and Christopher Swain, in conversation with David Schwab Abel

Join Christopher Swain, who swam in the U.S.’s most polluted waters to draw worldwide attention to the perilous state of our fragile waterways; Céline Cousteau, ocean and Amazon rainforest activist and granddaughter of the legendary Jacques Cousteau; and Erin Schrode, a 25-year-old community activist who ran for U.S. Read more

I Stand for Education / Unlocking Potential

Saturday, October 15 | 3 PM

Location: ATRIUM

With Jacob Lief and Ian Rowe in conversation with Anya Kamenetz

What is the difference between an elementary school education in Cape Town and New York City? Join us for a fascinating conversation with two education pioneers—Ian Rowe, CEO of Public Prep, and Jacob Lief, founder of the Ubuntu Education Fund in South Africa—and moderator, acclaimed author, and NPR education correspondent Anya Kamenetz. Read more

I Stand for Women in War and Peace

Saturday, October 15 | 4 PM

Location: ATRIUM

With Kim Barker, Gini Reticker, and Joydeep Roy-Bhattacharya in conversation with Lee Woodruff

Kim Barker was the South Asia bureau chief for the Chicago Tribune from 2004 to 2009, based in New Delhi and Islamabad. Read more

I Stand for an End to Violence

Saturday, October 15 | 5 PM

Location: ATRIUM

With Sarah Clements and Jessica Mindich, in conversation with Wesley Lowery

While the overall crime rate in the U.S. has dropped over the past decades, every single day, 91 people die from gun violence—from schoolchildren to victims of domestic violence, to people accidently caught in the crossfire. Read more

Screening of selected segments from the documentary Antigone in Ferguson, followed by a dramatic reading of scenes from Antigone with Reg E. Cathey (House of Cards, The Wire), Gloria Reuben (ER), Glenn Davis (24, The Unit), and Samira Wiley (Orange Is the New Black). Read more

Mina's Dream is a specially commissioned performance by Hamid Rahmanian, an award-winning Iranian artist and Guggenheim Fellow based in New York. His 15-minute shadow play tells the story of a young girl whose dreams are bigger than her community's social pressures and decrees. Read more

Collect materials for your own crafty creation, or grab our activity book to take home—because we know heroes can be busy!

My Hero Stands for…

Sunday, October 16 | 11 AM - 3 PM

Location: ATRIUM

Contribute to our public art installation by telling us what your ideal heroes would stand for.

Superhero Challenges

Sunday, October 16 | 11 AM - 3 PM

Location: ATRIUM

With Efi Latifi, Andrew Siebengartner, and Panayotis League

Do you have what it takes to be a superhero? Our in-house heroes will test your abilities with special challenges that include finding your way out of Daedalus’s labyrinth, or breaking into an Orpheus-worthy song! Complete three tasks and win a prize! (Though the best prize, as any superhero will tell you, is a job well done.) All of our teaching artists speak both Greek and English.

Interactive Storytelling with Elizabeth Simmons

Sunday, October 16 | 11 - 11:25 AM

Location: ATRIUM

Actor-educator Elizabeth Simmons leads an interactive performance that tells the story of Penelope from the Odyssey, with references to Antigone.

Movement with Meredith Akins

Sunday, October 16 | 12 - 12:25 PM

Location: ATRIUM

Dancer and choreographer Meredith Akins leads a movement program in which children can physicalize Greek heroes and heroines such as the Amazons, Atalanta, Antigone, Heracles, and Theseus, and then develop their own heroes and heroines.

Co-presented by Outside the Wire, the PopTech Institute, and the Onassis Foundation USA

Antigone in Ferguson is an innovative project that presents dramatic readings by acclaimed actors of scenes from Sophocles’ Antigone. Read more

The Hero’s Song with Magda Giannikou

Sunday, October 16 | 1 - 1:45 PM

Location: ATRIUM

Join Magda Giannikou, Andres Rotmistrovsky, and Panayotis League for an interactive musical performance! Create your own musical instrument, sing songs from all over the world, become part of the performance, and be your own hero!

Moderated by Simon Critchley
Part of Onassis Programs at BAM
In conjunction with Phaedra(s)
$25; $12.50 for BAM members

Isabelle Huppert speaks with philosopher Simon Critchley about the controversial heroine, Phaedra, and the multiple interpretations—from Seneca to Kane to Mouawad—that make up this fall’s presentation of Phaedra(s).

With Charles Mee and Caridad Svich
Moderated by Kaneza Schaal
A program of the Brooklyn Book Festival
Part of Onassis Programs at BAM
Free

Playwrights Charles Mee and Caridad Svich examine how the myth of Phaedra has been reinterpreted across artistic media to reflect contemporary society—and the timeless truths it continues to reveal—in a conversation moderated by theater artist Kaneza Schaal.

In conjunction with The Undertaking
With Simon Critchley
Part of Onassis Programs at BAM
Free for same-day ticket holders

Philosopher Simon Critchley talks about death and the afterlife over drinks with audience members in this informal discussion sparked by The Civilians’ new play, The Undertaking, and Critchley’s own inquiries into the subject in his books Memory Theater and The Book of Dead Philosophers.

Modern-Day Antigones

Wednesday, October 5 I 7 PM

Location: New York Public Library

Co-presented by LIVE from the NYPL and the Onassis Cultural Center New York

The original Antigone may be from antiquity, but our current era abounds with women fighting unabashedly for what they believe. To celebrate these heroes, the Onassis Cultural Center New York and LIVE from the NYPL invite Mona Eltahawy to the stage. Read more

Launched by the Onassis Foundation USA on the occasion of the Antigone Now Festival

Inspired by the story of Antigone, the #iSTANDfor campaign and website aim to encourage young people around the world to engage with each other in order to support common causes—whether social, economic, or environmental—and share stories of inspiration and change via their social media channels. Read more